[Def Jam; 2010]
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Big Boi has probably always felt a bit left out. Constant acclaim has been directed to his partner in crime André 3000: people said that his flow was better, his rhyming was more creative, he was the reason OutKast was inventive, and so on. He may not be three stacks, but people don’t seem to recognize just how damn consistent the man is. Despite the lauding it received upon release, The Love Below just doesn’t work as well as Big Boi’s Speakerboxxx. André’s experimentations sometimes worked with flying colors, but Big Boi’s steady, simple southern rap record prevailed.
Now that André seems to be avoiding most anything musically, time seems right for Big Boi to get some attention of his own at last. His long delayed ‘first’ solo record is finally approaching its drop date, and an EP’s worth of singles have been slipped out along the way. For the most part they’ve been fantastic (“Royal Flush,” “Shutterbug”), but a bunch of them aren’t set to even appear on the record. A recent blow prevents 3000 from appearing on the album, so for the first time in their careers, the two will be truly separated.
Regardless, this song is glorious. Sampling an epic opera performance, and with no distracting Gucci Mane mucking up the beat, this song may be the best single Big Boi has dropped from the record. Big Boi’s swagger is grand, hurling out aggressive lines over the noisy production (he opens with, “Get the South dick up out yo mouth,” first line). He sounds bitter, and after the undeniable importance of his and 3000’s work being slept on of late, who can blame him. After the relative quiet that’s persisted following Idlewild, “One half of the OutKast / return like the ghost of Christmas past,” and it sounds to be a thunderous return at that. What amounts to nearly half an album’s worth of singles have been put out, and with each and every one being at the very least enjoyable, we can probably anticipate quite a return, unless the label keeps with the meddling.
Download the MP3 on It’s A Rap
[from the album Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty , due out July 6th]
8/10
